Medical Device Tax Repeal Effort has Bipartisan Support, But Will it Succeed? (Reader Poll)Medical Device Tax Repeal Effort has Bipartisan Support, But Will it Succeed? (Reader Poll)

The device tax has now officially pulled in $1 billion from American medtech companies. 

Three industry trade associations - Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed,) the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) announced that the milestone was achieved as of July 15. The announcement came with the obligatory demands to repeal this tax that critics believe threatens jobs and innovation.

 Aside from the tax's potential to hurt innovation and threaten jobs, tax expert Ken Schuckers, with Atlanta firm Bennett Thrasher, fears that many smaller medical device companies are paying taxes on items that are not taxable. They are doing so because they simply lack the expertise to know that.

The tax may be unpopular but how realistic are the chances of repeal?

There was great hope in the industry when a House bill introduced by Minnesota Congressman Erik Paulsen, a Republican, and Ron Kind of Indiana, a Democrat garnered bipartisan support at a time when the two sides don't see eye to eye on much else. Another round of applause came when earlier this year 79 senators adopted a non-binding resolution to add an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2014 Senate Budget Resolution to repeal the medical device tax. 

For all the support, one fact remains unchanged. No one has really figured out a way to plug the $29 billion revenue hole that the repeal would result in. 

So, now the fate of a repeal rests on somehow tying it to comprehensive tax reform. But will this unwieldy vehicle - rife with potential political minefields - really kill the device tax issue once and for all? Can it really lead to repeal?

Here's your chance to weigh in. 

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[Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com user p51d ]

-- by Arundhati Parmar, Senior Editor, MD+DI
[email protected]